MENSTRIE firefighter Chris Bown was part of a local team that travelled to Belgium to compete against some of the best rope rescue squads in Europe.

The Larbert-based serviceman joined six other colleagues from the Central Scotland Fire and Rescue Service (CSFRS) at a contest in Namur on Saturday, May 12.

Led by crew manager Iain Dunbar, the CSFRS party finished thirteenth overall out of the 30 teams involved – and second when their results were compared to the three other British teams that journeyed across the Channel.

Throughout the day participants were scored by judges on six different challenges involving various rescue situations.

Precarious

These included several involving the deployment of a stretcher; a “pick off” which saw a casualty safely removed from a precarious position on a hill and another where teams had to devise a strategy to help another individual down from a tree.

For a task that assessed medical ability, a spokesperson for the local service said the Central Scotland squad scored 19 out of 20.

Station manger Martin Riach explained to the Observer that the service’s rope rescue team attends similar events regularly – in their own time – in a bid to hone their skills.

“We did very well.

“We were 18th last year so it shows we’re moving in the right direction,” Mr Riach said.

He continued: “It does get competitive, but we learn a lot from looking at the techniques other people use and the different equipment used in other parts of Europe, which we can then feed back to our learning and development team.”

Joe Andrews, CSFRS’s group manager for operations, declared: “This is a fantastic achievement from the team. They have worked hard in their spare time training to prepare for this event. As a service, we are very proud.”